- Daniel Buchanan, 29, from Mackay, Qld got the fright of his life when his daughter Amity swallowed a button battery
- The battery caused alarming symptoms, including projectile vomiting and left a hole in her oesophagus
- Thankfully, after 28 hours, the battery was successfully removed in hospital
Here Daniel shares his story in his own words.
‘Blow out the candle, sweetheart,’ I cheered on my bub Amity.
It was March 2023 and we were celebrating our girl’s first birthday with family at my parents Jal and Michelle’s house.
‘She’s perfect,’ my partner Jemma, then 22, beamed, twirling our princess in her rainbow tutu.
As Amity took a bite of cake, it was hard to believe how quickly she’d grown.
A few days later, I headed off to my job as a pool installer.
‘Goodbye, my loves,’ I kissed Amity and Jemma.
That afternoon at work I got a frantic call from Jemma. ‘Amity’s vomiting a strange thick consistency, and there’s a whistling sound after every breath she takes,’ she panicked.
She told me that Amity had been playing in our walk-in-wardrobe while she was in the bedroom. Then Amity had handed her a polystyrene ball that must have spilled from her little baby bean bag.
We suspected she’d accidentally swallowed another one that’d spilled from the outer casing.
‘Call an ambulance and I’ll meet you at the hospital!’ I said, before making a dash for the car.
Amity was projectile vomiting and screaming, her throat strained and her eyes puffy with tears.
At hospital, a doctor used a stethoscope to listen to Amity’s chest.
‘She seems okay now,’ he said. ‘I suspect she has a stomach bug.’
But back at home that night, our girl seemed anything but fine.
Amity was projectile vomiting and screaming, her throat strained and her eyes puffy with tears.
And it was impossible for her to keep down any food or liquids.
Our hearts broke.
‘This isn’t right,’ we agreed, taking her to see our GP the next day.
‘She needs to go straight to the hospital for an X-ray,’ he urged after detecting a murmur in Amity’s heart.
Back at the same hospital, a scan showed that Amity had swallowed a button battery and it was lodged in her oesophagus.
My heart sank into my stomach. I’d heard of other children who’d died from swallowing batteries.
It’d been 28 hours since she’d swallowed it. Was it too late for our girl?
Jemma was beside herself with worry and racked with guilt. ‘I should have been paying closer attention to her,’ she tortured herself.
But I knew how quickly things like this could happen.
‘It was just an accident,’ I soothed her.
While I went home to pack our bags, Amity was flown by the Royal Flying Doctor Service with Jemma to a bigger hospital, where our girl was placed in an induced coma.
Rushing her into theatre, surgeons worked for two hours to remove the battery.
We had no idea if Amity would talk again, or even if she’d survive.
By the time I arrived with Dad that night, the battery, the size of a 10-cent coin, had been successfully removed.
Tragically, the battery acid had burnt a hole in our girl’s oesophagus.
We had no idea if Amity would talk again, or even if she’d survive. She was then flown to a Brisbane hospital.
Forty-eight agonising hours later, our bub’s big blue eyes flickered open. She was going to be okay.
I felt like it was the first time I could breathe in days. But rather than the same cheeky, bubbly girl we’d known, she was docile and quiet.
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Thankfully, the next day she was able to crack a sweet little smile.
‘We love you so much,’ we gently cuddled her.
For the next month, our girl was monitored in the paediatric intensive care unit while her little body recovered.
Fed through a feeding tube in her tummy, she’d sometimes pull the tubes out of her nose, screaming in agony.
It was heartbreaking to see Amity in such pain, and we had to put mitts on her hands to prevent her from pulling the tubes.
We stayed close by at Ronald McDonald House to keep an eye on Amity.
Amazingly, the hole healed up quite quickly.
But she needed several surgeries to expand her oesophagus. Because it was so swollen, she wasn’t able to swallow solid foods, so they had to stretch the oesophagus with a balloon numerous times to widen it.
As Amity showed signs of improvement and was slowly able to eat solids like rice and toast, in April we were able to take her home.
She didn’t have a feeding tube and docs instructed us to gradually build up her tolerance to solids.
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We still remain extra vigilant and have added child locks to every drawer and cupboard in the house to ensure she’ll never ingest anything that could harm her again.
We threw out a lot of her toys, especially those with batteries, and moved certain objects up high so she can’t reach.
To our horror, we realised a few months after the scary ordeal that the button battery she swallowed was from an old car key fob that was in a drawer of our wardrobe.
It’d gone through the wash and the battery was dead – thankfully it wasn’t active, otherwise our girl might not be here today.
A killer had been hiding in our wardrobe…
Since her accident, Amity has had nine surgeries to widen her oesophagus.
Despite the trauma, Amity, now three, is such a happy and healthy little girl, though she can get a little upset after time at hospital.
She’s a bubbly, chatty little thing. We were worried she wouldn’t be able to talk, so we’re very glad she can.
Our funny girl will often pretend to be a character from Peppa Pig or Paw Patrol. She also loves to sing, dance and dress up as Elsa from Frozen. Amity also dresses up as a doctor sometimes and says that’s what she wants to be when she’s older.
We’re still unsure what the long-lasting effects might be for our Amity, but we pray there aren’t any.
We urge other parents to make sure no small objects are left around at home.
This nightmare could’ve been deadly. We’re so thankful our girl is still here with us.
